Mali… The African Tongue of Flame

After Mali gained independence from France in 1960, the Mali Federation — which had united Mali and Senegal — quickly collapsed, and Modibo Keïta assumed leadership of the newly independent state. The country’s first president inherited a vast territory where flames of unrest had already begun to burn — fires that have yet to be extinguished. Rival ethnicities, cross-border tribal extensions, and armed separatist tendencies defined the fragile landscape. Northern Mali, which constitutes nearly two-thirds of the country’s territory, is inhabited predominantly by Tuareg communities alongside Arab groups. They rejected the authority of the southern-based government dominated by the Bambara tribes. The Tuareg of Azawad, together with the Arab component, raised the slogan: “We will not accept being ruled by Blacks,” and soon took up arms against the government in Bamako, seeking independence from the newly independent state itself.

President Modibo Keïta initially pursued a flexible approach toward the insurgents, though he never ruled out the use of force to restrain those refusing allegiance to his new republic. Within a few years, the tribes of Azawad began advocating autonomy, yet the central government rejected the proposal, deepening northern resentment toward Bamako’s rule — particularly amid the total absence of development and public services in their remote region far from the capital.

In 1968, Lieutenant Moussa Traoré led a military coup that overthrew Keïta and ruled Mali until 1991. The cycle of military coups never ceased, culminating most recently in the 2021 coup led by Colonel Assimi Goïta — the fifth military takeover in Mali’s modern history.

In recent years, several Sahel states — including Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali — have experienced military coups and seismic political and security upheavals. Their historic relationship with France, the former colonial power that maintained deep political and military influence in the region, has nearly collapsed. France had provided strong military support to these governments in their fight against Islamist extremist movements. Yet following the political, financial, and military withdrawal of France, the three states opened their doors to Russian military presence. The Russian-African Corps assumed leadership of battles fought by the Malian government against ISIS, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, and Al-Qaeda affiliates.

In recent weeks, these armed groups — allied with Azawad rebels — launched a sweeping assault on the capital, Bamako. The Minister of Defense was reportedly killed, while trucks carrying food and fuel supplies were burned. The latest escalation marked an unprecedented level of violence against the capital and several towns and cities. Rebel factions employed drones and armored vehicles and carried out widespread looting of public and private property. Human suffering expanded, fear spread, and chaos engulfed the country.

The impoverished Sahel-Sahara region was infected early by the epidemic of military coups, while repeated attempts to transition toward democratic civilian governance collapsed. Islamist extremist movements found fertile ground there to plant their seeds. The region’s cross-border ethnic and tribal diversity further complicated the crisis. In northern Mali — which covers two-thirds of the country — Tuaregs form the majority alongside a smaller Arab minority. Shortly after independence, the Azawad movement began demanding separation from the newly formed state. After years of conflict, the movement itself fractured internally, with some factions eventually advocating autonomy instead of outright secession.

The northern desert region of Azawad is arid and sparsely populated, with most inhabitants living nomadic lives centered on pastoralism. Developments and policies in neighboring countries provided support and momentum to their cause.

Following Algeria’s “Black Decade,” Algerian militants joined Islamist extremist movements operating in Mali. During the Gaddafi era, Libya provided military and financial support to the Azawad movement, which came under the leadership of Iyad Ag Ghaly, a Malian Tuareg who had once served in the Libyan army and fought in Libya’s wars in Chad. He later embraced Islamist extremism and participated in operations classified as terrorist attacks. The United States government pursued him aggressively, offering financial rewards for his capture, while international warrants and judicial rulings were reportedly issued against him.

In Mali, the fire of violence has risen like a moving inferno stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. Radical Islamist armed groups formed alliances with the separatist Tuareg forces of northern Azawad. The Russian-African Corps — Wagner forces stationed in northern Mali — suffered a devastating blow in clashes with Azawad fighters, reportedly losing hundreds of personnel before retreating in defeat.

After its assault on Bamako, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin offered to enter a reconciliation process with the Malian government. President Assimi Goïta rejected the proposal and insisted on pursuing military confrontation. The Malian leadership appears to be betting on widening internal divisions within extremist movements themselves. The recent alliance between the Azawad movement and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin emerged only after the latter abandoned much of its transnational Islamist rhetoric and shifted toward a more localized agenda — a move that itself sparked disputes among the movement’s factions.

Today, the Sahel-Sahara region is crowded with armed groups representing multiple strands of Islamist extremism, while foreign intervention continues to intensify, encouraging separatist tendencies among various factions. The presence of the Russian-African Corps prompted Ukraine to provide substantial military assistance to the Tuareg rebels in northern Azawad, enabling them to inflict significant defeats on Wagner forces and force their withdrawal from Kidal.

Peaceful political solutions appear increasingly elusive. Pathways toward reconciliation, good governance, justice, and development remain blocked. External ambitions driven by Africa’s immense wealth, combined with the fragility of its social fabric, warn of an expanding blaze spreading across the vast Sahel-Sahara belt.

Originally published by Asharq Al-Awsat